Need advice balancing wood garage door

[Dirtmerchant]

As the title implies, I need some words of wisdom on balancing a solid wood garage door. We bought the house last year, apparently I never tried to open the garage door manually until this past weekend when I need to replace a worn operator trolly.

It has no lift anywhere, I'd estimate the weight going from the floor to about 4' is probably ~85lbs, from 4'-6' may lighten to 75lbs and then feels like it gets increases a little. It appear that the springs are original and everything is appears to be in good shape, at least the springs are not broken...

Pics for reference:

 

[Dirtmerchant]

 

[Dirtmerchant]

 

[Dirtmerchant]

 

[gmcgeo]

This is a spring issue.

Torsion springs are extremely dangerous to adjust without the proper tools and experience. They are under tremendous tension and can cause severe injury or death if mishandled. If you're not familiar with working on these systems, this is a job best left to professionals.


I can walk you through the process, however its best to hire a tech to come and adjust or replace the worn out springs

 

[firebirdparts]

I would say very mildly dangerous. The forces are extremely obvious. In this forum there’s always been a thing about it though. I would call Russian roulette extremely dangerous. Competing in the Isle of Man TT looks extremely dangerous.

Never give a sword to a man that can’t dance, I guess. Or something.

Anyway, the door might balance well if properly wound or it might not. Spring selection is important.

 

[Dirtmerchant]

Thanks guys, I don't ride in the Isle of Man but I do ride a motorcycle on some of the twistiest roads in Western NC so I'm not super risk adverse. I grew up on a farm and can follow instructions, if after some tweaking it doesn't get better I have a guy. I AssUme the springs are spec'ed right as it is a custom built door that was professionally installed, not that they didn't goof it up.

 

[jack stand]

Good advice!
.....but if you understand how the sping is working, and realize the potential energy that you're dealing with along with the direction to tighten with two 1/2" rods with one always engaged against the wall..... it's doable for most handy common sense guys.
You must make the same adjustments to all 4 springs.
If you can't stare at the torsion spring assembly for 5 minutes and understand how it works as a system with the cables & pulleys, call a guy!
It's comparable to playing with a loaded gun.

 

[Mikes61]

There’s a lot of videos on YouTube on how to balance your door the safe way. Watch all of them.
Amazon sells the rods for $11ish.
Don’t use anything but the proper rods!

 

[gmcgeo]

I would say very mildly dangerous. The forces are extremely obvious. In this forum there’s always been a thing about it though. I would call Russian roulette extremely dangerous. Competing in the Isle of Man TT looks extremely dangerous.

Never give a sword to a man that can’t dance, I guess. Or something.

Anyway, the door might balance well if properly wound or it might not. Spring selection is important.

Handling Venomous snakes is extremely dangerous.... to some. If you do not know what you're doing anything can be extremely dangerous.

I would love to compete the isle of man.... that is my dream

 

[Dirtmerchant]

Yeah, I don't do poisonous snakes but once had a big iguana as a house pet until my now wife moved in, that is a story for another thread. I'd love to have 1/4 the skills of the IOM riders, going to watch it is on my bucket list for sure, always been a Guy Martin fan but who isn't..

 

[gizardlizard]

Handling Venomous snakes is extremely dangerous.... to some. If you do not know what you're doing anything can be extremely dangerous.

I would love to compete the isle of man.... that is my dream

The wife and I both ride. Got my 50 year pin last year. We’ve been to the Isle of Man for the TT. If you think it’s pure insanity while watching on YouTube, you seriously need to go there. It’s unreal.

 

[gmcgeo]

The wife and I both ride. Got my 50 year pin last year. We’ve been to the Isle of Man for the TT. If you think it’s pure insanity while watching on YouTube, you seriously need to go there. It’s unreal.

I hope i can some day!

 

[cvairwerks]

I work with dangerous stuff all day....handling explosives and rocket motors while around a couple of thousand gallons of jet fuel. Big torsion springs I leave to the guys that do it all the time. They'll be in, have it all adjusted and be gone in under an hour.

 

[gmcgeo]

My brother worked in the garage business for a while. he has some crazy stories of home owners hurting themself messing with springs.

One time a customer called and they were trying to tighten the spring, it snapped and went through the back window of the car they had sitting in the garage.

It won't feel good to be hit by that thing

 

[gizardlizard]

Good advice!
.....but if you understand how the sping is working, and realize the potential energy that you're dealing with along with the direction to tighten with two 1/2" rods with one always engaged against the wall..... it's doable for most handy common sense guys.
You must make the same adjustments to all 4 springs.
If you can't stare at the torsion spring assembly for 5 minutes and understand how it works as a system with the cables & pulleys, call a guy!
It's comparable to playing with a loaded gun.

Totally agree with this advice. I’ve wound and unwound many door springs. Yes, it’s very dangerous but very doable. Safety wise, the best advice I can give you in this: NEVER put your face inline with the winding drum. If the drums explodes (very rare) you don’t want your face in front of it. Always have your body off to the side. Last heavy door I did, required 44 quarter turns on each spring.

 

[darrowco]

Back to the OP issue - "It has no lift anywhere" and "I Assume the springs are spec'ed right as it is a custom built door that was professionally installed".

I would double check that the installer used an appropriate spring by using a spring calculator like the spring calculator at the bottom of this page using the Find By Door Weight tab. If they put the in the right springs, and they door is not binding, the springs may have lost their tension (sagged). Put another way, the k may have diminished in Hooke's spring law: F=kx.

Check these pages for more garage door spring info:

• https://ddmgaragedoors.com/diy-instructions/#garage-door-springs
• https://www.truetex.com/garage.htm

Winding the springs tighter might help in the initial lift but can then have too much force at the top and slam the door open. Best to get the correct springs (don't ask me how I found out )

 

[Dirtmerchant]

Thank you to everyone who posted, I put a call into a door guy. I'll post back with the outcome, hopefully it just needs wound up...

 

[pima67]

When the tech was retightening the springs on my door while trying to figure out why my LM 93002 (?) was mis behavig, he used vice grips instead of the second rod to hole the shaft in place so he could move the rod to the next hole. He said it was safer than using 2 rods.
The LM was later replaced under warranty.

 

[larry_g]

One thing about these torsion springs is that they get dry, rusty, and generate friction between the coils. I don't have an electric opener so strictly manual opening. I know when they start to get stiff and so I go through the annual lubricating routine. Lube the springs, rollers, and hinges and things return to smooth operation. So OP, if that door ever worked correctly have you kept up on your lubrication and if not then you might try some lube before spring adjusting. Cranking up the springs may just fix the symptoms but not the cause of your problems.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[BillK]

I have a heavy wooden 16' wide door on my detached garage. Probably almost 35 years old ? I have had to add some tension to the springs a couple of times over those years. I just crank a 1/4 turn at a time on both of them and it usually gets them right back to normal.

Garage door springs are no different than any other spring in that they lose some tension over time. I am glad I noticed this thread because it reminded me to put my winding rods in the truck to take to work and adjust the big bay door at my shop

If you are fairly good mechanically I dont see where adjusting them is a big deal or terribly dangerous. DDM doors has a lot of information and videos:

Do-It-Yourself Garage Door Instructions | DDM Garage Doors

Do-it-yourself garage door tutorials and how-to instructions for both the experienced and inexperienced DIYer.

ddmgaragedoors.com

 

[Wrench97]

Give each spring a 1/4 turn and see what the door feels like, it's normal for springs to lose a bit of tension over the years.

 

[Dirtmerchant]

The house and is 17 years old but I have owed it for less than two years and don't think I've ever opened it manually until this weekend so not sure if it was good before. I spoke to the owner of a garage door company who put new trim on it after I had the house stained and door refinished last year so he is familiar. I do almost everything myself and I'm sure I could do it but think I'll pick my battles and let him handle it.

 

[Bill T]

First-that is a very nice door. I hope your call to the tech worked out for you.
As far as the very dangerous part... I thought marrying a redhead -correction, a crazy redhead qualified as a dangerous activity. I have only stepped into that pile once. Followed by marrying a crazy blonde. I can absolutely state that red is much,much more dangerous.

 

[Dirtmerchant]

Thought I'd circle back with the outcome. My door guy has apparently been too busy to make it by, fact is I'm in a small town and he probably doesn't make it this way too ofter so I took matters into my own hands. I ordered a decent set of bars from Amazon, watched a few good YouTube videos by door parts companies and went to work on it. I put three 1/4 turns on each of the four springs. It holds a 3', holds at 5' and rolls nicely into full up with little to no effort, not sure if it's perfect but I'd say it's damn close and much better than it was. My door operator is much happier....

 

[gmcgeo]

Thought I'd circle back with the outcome. My door guy has apparently been too busy to make it by, fact is I'm in a small town and he probably doesn't make it this way too ofter so I took matters into my own hands. I ordered a decent set of bars from Amazon, watched a few good YouTube videos by door parts companies and went to work on it. I put three 1/4 turns on each of the four springs. It holds a 3', holds at 5' and rolls nicely into full up with little to no effort, not sure if it's perfect but I'd say it's damn close and much better than it was. My door operator is much happier....

Good job, glad that's all it needed.

 

[captain14]

Thanks for the followup.

 

[grindliner]

We just use appropriately sized round stock 24" long, with a slight chamfer on the ends, always stand to the side of the bars when winding, when adjusted properly, with the operator disconnected, the door will stay where ever you stop it in it's travel

 

[gizardlizard]

Great job. Tightening up older springs is far more dangerous than newer ones. Whenever I tighten new springs, I’m not scared but very aware. If I have to tighten older springs because of a sagging door, the pucker factor goes way up.